Loran Resigns from Senate

SENATE HALL, CORUSCANT - Citing his "intent within the following week to retire from my organization," business magnate Drayson Loran announced his resignation from the Senate, after three years representing his Outlying Shipping Corporation (OSC) and serving as the New Republic's influential Chairman of the Economics Council. In a speech this Friday, Loran announced his intention to "henceforth... be focusing more on my humanitarian and philanthropic endeavors," as he resigns from the OSC with a severance package worth 900 million credits.

"I close... with a sense of pride in all that I have accomplished, and all that we have accomplished together," said Loran in his farewell remarks to the Senate, "and with my thanks to all of my friends in this chamber with whom I have labored, collaborated, and even sometimes disagreed over the course of our mutual pursuit of the betterment of the New Republic, and the strength and security of its economy and its citizens."

Loran, who assumed the Chairmanship of the Outlying Shipping Corporation over a decade ago and has since expanded it to become one of the largest shipping conglomerates in the galaxy, now retires from an OSC troubled with financial woe (the corporation last month posted its second loss in as many quarters) and stiff competition from smaller companies, smugglers and privateers. In recent months, the organization has been compelled to sell off several subsidiaries and dozens of its freighters.

The OSC also announced Friday the sale of another subsidiary, OSC Industrial, to the Intergalactic Mining Corporation (IMC) for 28 billion credits and a seat on the IMC's Board of Trustees. The deal represents the OSC's complete departure from the manufacturing industry, and the IMC's acquisition of production plants on ten worlds. In announcing the deal, Loran stated that the OSC would now focus solely on shipping, and that the 28 billion credits would be used to expand ports and services in a few, select markets, while scaling back service in others over the next fiscal year.

But despite the OSC's recent financial troubles, Loran himself is generally credited with having created an otherwise successful organization second only to the former Trade Federation in size, and was praised on Friday for his tenure in the Senate. "Even though you and I have been mostly disagreed on a host of issues," remarked Chief of State Eli Fitzgerald (Ralltiir), "it is still fair to say that your presence and your contributions to the discussion in this chamber will be missed. Even when we have disagreed, it has always seemed the case that you do believe the principles for which you argue... and what you've almost always had the best intentions for this Republic."

Throughout his Senate service, Loran fought for the withdrawal of recognition from the Smuggler's Alliance, opposed corporate licensing and the Sentient Equality Act, and came closer than any other Economics Council chairman to balancing the New Republic's mammoth budget. His departure from the Senate, and the OSC's apparent decline, represents the dwindling clout of the shipping industry in the New Republic and much of the galaxy.